


All I Want for Mercenary Day Is You

by EldritchSandwich



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, Fluffy Sandwich, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:33:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5450177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchSandwich/pseuds/EldritchSandwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Athena has a very special Mercenary Day present in mind for Janey. If the scared, scarred ex-assassin can manage not to sabotage herself, that is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All I Want for Mercenary Day Is You

Athena's never given anyone a present before. Well, maybe Jess, maybe back when they were kids, before Atlas and everything else. But if she did she can't remember now, and she tries to remember everything she can about her sister, even when it hurts. So anyway Athena, the woman she is now, has never given anyone a present before. Not once.

Until Janey, she's never wanted to.

"Aw, that's sweet, hon," Janey said when she asked, "but you don't have to make a fuss. Besides, there's only one thing I wanna unwrap this year."

Athena asked what, and Janey gave her a look. Athena blushed.

That's something else she hadn't done before she met Janey.

"Thank you. For helping me with this."

"Yeah, no probs, grrl, whateva you need!" Tina's voice is muffled by the 'sensitive document storage cabinet'/dumpster she's digging through. She sticks her head out long enough to look at Athena. "But you know the Raiders gots to have way better ones, right?"

Athena frowns, and not because that bit of tactical information is in any way news. "The people in Sanctuary...most of them still don't trust me."

"Brick does," Tina says from upside down inside the dumpster. "Moxxi does. Also Dr. T has this picture of you takin' a shower so she must like you if ya know what I mean!"

Athena just keeps frowning and fidgeting; she's never been good at waiting for other people. Or at hearing that mentally-unhinged archaeologists have naked pictures of her.

"Be that as it may...I highly doubt Lilith would let me set foot inside Crimson Raider headquarters, much less let me take anything."

"Eh, Lilypad's fine, she's just gotta deal with all that bein' in charge shizz. Oop, hold up..." Tina pops out of the sea of paper, clutching a crumpled map. "Pah-pow! This it."

Athena unrolls the map. The header says 'Mt. Schuler Meteorological Research Station,' and below that is a fast travel code and a lot of hand-drawn red X's.

"Even drew where I put all the landmines, which is kind of im-potent."

"Yes, I see that." Athena rolls up the map. "Thank you, Tina."

"Happy to help, my lady-lovin' lady. Hope your lady-lovin' lady love loves it like a lady and pays you back with lotsa lady lovin'."

Athena clears her throat, the faintest pink coloring her cheeks. "Right. Thanks."

* * *

This puts Athena in a bit of a bind. Previous events have shown her that there's nothing Janey hates more than being lied to, and that Athena's not nearly as good at lying to her as she thought. But at the same time, every one of her atrophied romantic instincts—the ones that only started tingling again when she stumbled into Janey's office after the Sentinel and the blonde gathered her unresisting body in her arms and said "You don't have to say anything until you're ready"—is telling her that this has to be a surprise.

"I won't be gone the whole time. Just a few scouting trips, no violence." She turns from her preparations to find Janey leaning against the runner she's supposed to be working on, staring at her. "I promise. Just a few hours a day in the wilderness planting...beacons or something. And we could use the money."

"Well, I can't tell you what to do," Janey says in a tone that suggests she very easily could if Athena pushed her. "Just be careful."

Athena sighs and stops packing up her storage deck. She crosses the floor in three long strides to wrap her arms around Janey, her forehead settling on the hollow of the blonde's throat. "We both know that careful's never been an issue for me."

"Well then be thoughtful," Janey mutters above her. Athena breathes in against her warm, dry skin, the smells of motor oil and floral soap and subtle saltiness that add up to Janey Springs. She lets the breath out as a sigh.

"Believe me, I am trying."

She can feel Janey's fingers running through her hair. Janey's done that since before they were even together, since that embrace in her office after the Sentinel, and every time it's made Athena not want to leave. But she tells herself it's for a good cause, the best cause she's ever had, and eventually Janey lets her go.

"Well. You better get on. Don't wanna be late."

"I'll be back soon. I promise."

"I'll be here," Janey says, and to Athena they're the three most powerful words in the English language because having that, having something to come back to, is so much more than she ever thought she'd have.

And if she can make Janey realize that, even for a second, then that's worth a little white lie.

* * *

It takes longer than she thought it would, and not because the things she's looking for are hard to track down—they are, but no more so than she anticipated—but rather because, to put it in the parlance with which she's most comfortable, the mission parameters keep shifting. To put it another way, those romantic instincts she's been trying so hard to nurture since the first time Janey held her are suddenly going into overdrive.

The first day is the worst, since the blank canvas is the most overwhelming, and by the time she finally forces herself to be done for the day, she's very late. She apologizes when she gets home—home, the way she's naturally using the word in her own thoughts now almost makes her want to cry—and Janey doesn't say anything, just pats her on the small of the back and starts making dinner.

Athena just hopes that come Mercenary Day, Janey's still talking to her.

* * *

 Come Mercenary Day, Janey's still talking to her, but it's a near thing. She can tell that Janey knows, just knows, that Athena's not being honest about where she's been going all week, but she hasn't said anything.

They get up early, not because they can't contain their excitement but because their heating system breaks and threatens to boil them alive if they stay under the covers cuddling instead of fixing it. By the time they're done, they're both sweaty and agitated and in no mood to celebrate, and the timing makes Athena want to scream. But then the timing gets a lot better, because Janey says "God, what I wouldn't give to be somewhere cool right now," and there's no way a tactical genius like Athena could fail to exploit an opening like that.

So she takes Janey's hand and says "Close your eyes and come with me." And Janey looks at her funny for the longest time, long enough that Athena starts to wonder whether this was such a good idea in the first place, especially when Janey turns around and walks into the kitchen. But before Athena can panic Janey walks back out, a small, wrapped package under her arm, and takes her hand.

She feels stupid walking to the downtown Hollowpoint fast travel station like that, dragging Janey by the hand and constantly telling her to keep her eyes closed, stupid and giddy and young and wonderful and by the time they get there Janey's smiling again, a thin, peevish smile but a smile nonetheless. Athena puts their hands on the control and kisses her.

When they rematerialize, Athena gives herself just a second to dart her eyes around the room, making sure that everything's as she left it, and it's perfect, and she wants to vibrate out of her skin she's so excited because she's never done anything even remotely like this before. She kisses Janey again, and when she pulls back she says "Open your eyes."

Janey does, and she looks around, and she blinks, and her jaw drops open. "What...did you do all this?"

Athena doesn't answer, can't do anything more than shuffle nervously, still holding Janey's hand, until the blonde starts to smile.

"I wanted to...to do something for you."

Janey chuckles. "Well, hon, you certainly did that."

The little concrete and metal building they're in isn't all that different from any of the other half-prefab, half-salvage structures on Pandora. Or at least, it wasn't until Athena got her hands on it. Huge sheets of billowing cloth hang from every surface, deep reds and rosy pinks, and blankets and pillows cover the floor. Every container that possibly could has flowers in it, maybe scraggly, potentially poisonous Pandoran flowers but goddammit they're still flowers, and the only light comes from the soft glow of the lanterns suspended from the ceiling. By the time Janey's eyes finish their circuit of the room and return to Athena, she's grinning.

"It's bloody beautiful."

Athena just shrugs. "It's what I see when I look at you."

Janey laughs, because as romantic as that was seriously Athena come on, and kisses her again. When they pull apart, which is after quite a bit longer than the first two kisses, Athena tightens her grip on Janey's hand. "Come on. There's one more thing I have to show you."

This time Janey follows eagerly, practically on Athena's heels as they pick their way through the piles of pillows and flowers that Athena only now realizes are probably a lot more trouble than they're worth until they reach the door. When Athena throws it open and all but pushes them out onto the catwalk, Janey sucks in a gasp.

"Oh, Athena."

"Back on Elpis, you were talking about never having seen snow," Athena says simply. "So I thought I'd get you some."

Janey has a hand to her mouth and tears budding in the corners of her eyes because Athena didn't just get her snow. She got her a whole damn mountain. Their little weather station's at the peak, massive slopes of shimmering, crackling white stretching up and down and away in every direction, broken only by spines of bare black rock and the mottled gray of the sky. The wind, so cold it almost hurts, carries the flakes across the slopes in snaking eddies and floats them through the air like motes of glittering dust, and whatever Janey's feeling she can't even speak from the force of it.

She only tears her gaze away when Athena takes her hands again, mouth serious and eyes big and dark and heavy the way they get sometimes when she's thinking too much. "I know I'm not...good at saying how much you mean to me. And I know being with me can...can be difficult..."

Janey just grins. "Oh, pfft. If being in love was easy, nobody'd ever bother."

The rest of Athena's prepared speech piles up against the back of her throat, and she has to swallow before she can get anything else out. In love. Being in love. Athena's mouth just works mutely for a few seconds because she knew that, she knows Janey loves her, but of course hearing her just say it like that would blindside her completely just like everything else about being with Janey had. "I...Janey, I..." She swallows down another obstruction, but this time it's her heart leaping up into her throat. "I mean...of course, it goes without saying that I...not that I won't say it. I'm saying it now, I just, I don't want to make you think that—"

Janey's lips mercifully put her girlfriend's inelegant, terrified babbling out of its misery. "I love you too, babe." They kiss again, longer and deeper and so much better, until finally Janey pulls away. "Now can we go back inside? I'm freezing my ass off out here."

Athena practically shoulder-checks the door open to make it happen.

When they're safely sealed back inside Athena's little love nest, Janey doesn't waste any time. She kisses Athena again, slower and wetter, the kind of kiss that signals it's not planning to stay just a kiss. Athena sighs gently into her mouth as Janey's hands cinch around her back, pulling their bodies flush before they start to roam. Though she'd never admit it now Athena used to live for the moment just before a fight began, the rush of anticipation before battle, and this feels like that, like the one thing that makes her feel alive is so close that she can taste it. Taste her.

Janey kisses down to her neck, and a little sigh escapes from the back of her throat. Being kissed, having Janey's lips and tongue on her skin, especially anywhere but her mouth, took so much time to get comfortable with, but now that she is it feels like the most natural thing in the world; she can feel her body respond, stirring the warm, quiet rumblings that she had always assumed Atlas had stripped away along with her family and her freedom and that she can't ever possibly thank Janey enough for being sweet and kind and patient enough to rediscover.

Not that she isn't going to keep trying for as long as Janey lets her.

Their clothes come off in stages. It's a tradition that goes back to their first time, when Janey had to pause after every piece, touch and kiss the newly exposed skin to coax Athena back to feeling safe and secure enough to let the next piece go without a fight. These days Athena does the same to Janey, kissing and caressing and worshipping every inch before finally consenting to move on. She kisses Janey's scars too, every inch, and it makes Janey smile so hard she almost cries.

Their lovemaking is slow, slow and soft and tender and it always has been. Athena worried the first time, mortified that she was the powerful warrior woman and therefore supposed to take Janey like a man but instead she'd been so self-conscious and cripplingly uncertain that Janey had to guide her every touch. But every time they do this Athena just becomes more keenly aware that this slow, tender, smoldering embrace is so much more than either of them ever expected.

Athena makes love to Janey with her mouth, because ever since she worked up the courage to taste her she hasn't been able to stop, and Janey runs her fingers through her hair as she does and that just makes the ex-soldier want to please her all the more. Janey moans when she tastes herself on Athena's lips, and that makes Athena moan too.

They must spend hours like that, rolling around among the pillows and the flowers, kissing and touching and tasting and just being with each other. The fact that it's so slow and gentle means they don't tire like they should, and by the time they roll apart it's dark through the little sliver of window that peeks through the drapes. Janey kisses Athena on the forehead, then rolls away from her.

When she rolls back, Athena realizes she completely forgot about the present.

Janey grins. "Happy Mercenary Day to my favorite ex-mercenary."

Athena smiles even as she eyes the package skeptically. It's a rectangular box wrapped in red and white paper, smallish: about the right size to be a pistol or a grenade mod, but nothing bigger, and when she picks it up it's far too light to be either of those. She looks back at Janey, who's grinning like a schoolgirl.

"Oh, come on, open it!"

Athena does. She peels back the paper and opens the box, then her eyes narrow as she pulls out the roll of cloth that was sitting inside. She wonders if it's supposed to protect whatever it's wrapped around, but when it unfurls in her outstretched arms she understands. She understands and she laughs, she laughs until she cries because it's a t-shirt, a red one with a picture of a cat on it and before Athena even realizes it she's slipping it on over her shoulders and grabbing Janey and kissing her. Janey kisses her back and they tumble onto the pillows, laughing in love and joy and delirious relief that any of this could be real.

When they roll to a stop Athena's head's tucked under Janey's chin, her happy tears dried on the skin of the blonde's throat. "I love you," Athena whispers. As soon as she says them they're her new three favorite words, even better than 'I'll be here,' and Janey chuckles.

"See now, hon. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

And Athena laughs again because looking back on everything that's happened, everything that's gotten them here, no, it wasn't.

It wasn't hard at all.


End file.
